


Sad people smell of salt

by TerresDeBrume



Series: SEADLA Verse [11]
Category: Norse Mythology, The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Gen, POV Child, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-28
Updated: 2013-02-28
Packaged: 2017-12-03 22:43:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/703450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TerresDeBrume/pseuds/TerresDeBrume
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Outside is the place that makes Father cry.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sad people smell of salt

**Author's Note:**

> So this one takes place an undefined amount of time after SEADLA.
> 
> I don't think it's really spoilery, but read informed :)

He is napping in front of Tony’s fireplace with his cuddly polar bear toy and his favorite pacifier, listening to the sound of Tony working in his workshop a few floors down, when the young spider warrior strides into the room with his red and blue costume, face covered as usual. Fenrir doesn’t move -he learned a long time ago that if people don’t want to notice him, they won’t, no matter what he does. The men who guarded his prison never did.

  
The spider-man turns though, and when his head tilts to the side it makes him look like he is trying to fold his neck in two.  
  
“What are you doing there alone bud?” he asks. “I thought your Dad was supposed to take you guys outside?”  
  
Fenrir gives his pacifier a nervous suck, the plastic of it breaking between his teeth before closing again as fast as Father’s magic can make it. Fenrir is still wary about strangers, especially those whose face he can’t recognize. And Fenrir doesn’t like covered eyes either. They remind him of someone he sees in his dream sometimes, a scary man with a black square over his right eye. Fenrir chews on his pacifier again and curls up on himself, his bear tucked safely under his nose.  
  
(It still smells of Mommy Sigyn and Father and Hel and Sleipnir, and even a bit of Jorm, too, mingled with the twins’ smells over the fainter, older stench of polar bear and grease under the skin. It tingles against Fenrir’s face in a way that would make him close his eyes if he were alone.  
  
In the lab, Tony is hammering something down.)  
  
“Cat got your tongue?” The spider-man asks, walking closer.  
  
Fenrir is on his feet and three steps back before the human boy can do anything about it, heart beating hard and fast in his chest -he does not like masked men, does not like strangers, does not like the smell of warmth and stone and metal he brings with him from outside. Father always used to smell of that, and salt too. He always smelled of salt when he came to see Fenrir, and he said it was the ocean, but Fenrir knows he lied because the ocean doesn’t smell of salt like that, only sad people do.  
  
“Oh. You’re a shy one?” The other says. “I didn’t think a kid with a dad like yours could be shy.”  
  
The fireplace is warm behind Fenrir’s back but he feels cold inside, and his tummy aches like it always does when people are about to say something bad. People always say something bad about Father. They don’t like him very much.  
When father disappeared they said he was a traitor and a bastard and a liar -Fenrir isn’t sure what traitor or bastard mean, but liar he knows because Father often says he is a liar. He says you’re allowed to lie sometimes, because sometimes it helps and it protects you - he always put his hands on his thighs when he says that- but he also says you musn’t lie about important things. By the time Father came back, Fenrir almost believed the guards, almost thought Father had left him and didn’t care.   
(He explained why he left though, and Fenrir believes him, and still loves him.)  
  
“I mean, from what I’ve seen, he doesn’t seem to be a shy guy.”  
  
The spider-man who reeks of outside takes a step forward and this time Fenrir growls, hackles rising on the back of his neck, almost the same as they do when he’s a wolf -Fenrir likes it better when he’s a wolf. Then he’s big and scary and nobody picks on him. The human boy tilts his head again, the other side this time, and says something Fenrir doesn’t really hear, but he’s sure it’s something mean.  
  
So when the human takes something on his costume and bends his head, Fenrir bolts and run to the stairs, then all the way to the floor he shares with Father and into his room.  
It’s filled with flowers, pebbles and pieces of wood, starfishes and bird feathers, and even a dreamcatcher that uncle Coyote gifted him after he came to Midgard. Behind him, the door is locked, and no smell of the outside comes in.  
Fenrir goes to his bed where father left his nightshirt in case comfort was needed, and he wraps himself into the faded fabric, warm sunlight flowing in through the windows against his spine. When he closes his eyes, the outside world vanishes, replaced with the warmth of the sun on his face and the sound of Tony working several floors below him.  
  
And all around him, the faint murmur of something wet and warm envelopping him like water, and two spots of warmer flesh rest against his back.  
  
Fenrir, appeased, soon falls asleep to the sound of a voice singing something beautiful and very sad, and the foolish hope that he’ll never have to go outside again.

**Author's Note:**

> I need to work on my child-writing.
> 
> Any tips, concrit and/or counsel can be directed [here](http://terresdebrumestories.tumblr.com/ask) :)


End file.
